Sir Giles Rooke (1743–1808) was an English judge. Giles Rooke Hoppner

Life

The third son of Giles Rooke, a merchant of London and director of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

, by Frances, daughter of Leonard Cropp (1710-1785) of

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, he was born on 3 June 1743. He was educated at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

and matriculated at

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pro ...

on 26 November 1759, graduating B.A. in 1763. He proceeded M.A. in 1766, and in the same year was elected to a fellowship at

Merton College Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, ch ...

, which he held until 1785. Rooke was also

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

in 1766, and went the western circuit. In 1781 he was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law, and in April 1793 was made

king's serjeant A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writ ...

. At the next

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

assizes he prosecuted to conviction William Winterbotham, a dissenting minister at

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, for preaching sermons of a revolutionary tendency; and on 13 November of the same year was appointed to the puisne judgeship of the Court of Common Pleas, left vacant by the death of John Wilson. At the same time he was knighted. Rooke presided at the trial at the York Lent assizes in 1795 of

Henry Redhead Yorke Henry Redhead Yorke, in early life Henry Redhead (1772–1813) was an English writer and radical publicist. Life Redhead was born and brought up in Barbuda, to a mother who was a freed slave from Barbuda and a father who was an Antiguan planta ...

for conspiracy against the government. Giles Rooke

He died on 7 March 1808. Rooke left a large family by his wife, Harriet Sophia Burrard (d. 1839), the sister of Admiral Sir

Harry Burrard Neale Rear admiral Sir Harry Burrard Neale, 2nd Baronet (born Burrard; 16 September 1765 – 7 February 1840) was a British officer of the Royal Navy, and Member of Parliament for Lymington. He was the son of William Burrard, the governor of Yarmout ...

2nd Bt., of Walhampton. Lady Rooke was the daughter of Colonel William Burrard of Walhampton, Hampshire; Governor of

Yarmouth Castle Yarmouth Castle is an Blockhouse, artillery fort built by Henry VIII of England, Henry VIII in 1547 to protect Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, Yarmouth Harbour on the Isle of Wight from the threat of French attack. Just under across, the square cast ...

. The Rookes were the grandparents of the author

William Henry Giles Kingston William Henry Giles Kingston (28 February 1814 – 5 August 1880), often credited as W. H. G. Kingston, was an English writer of boys' adventure novels. Life William Henry Giles Kingston was born in Harley Street, London on 28 February 1814. H ...

. Rooke was author of ''Thoughts on the Propriety of fixing Easter Term'', 1792 (anon.)

Notes

External links

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Rooke, Giles 1743 births 1808 deaths English barristers 18th-century English judges Fellows of Merton College, Oxford Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Members of Lincoln's Inn People educated at Harrow School 19th-century English judges